Monthly Archives: August 2017

I have just re-read my post from January 17th, 2017 – yes, the last time I posted, so perhaps it’s best to pick up there. As you all know, the situation in the US and in the world has only gone downhill.

My abstinence from writing has been caused by a complete feeling of impotence. I have felt overwhelmed by the shameless acts of little t and the republican majority in both Houses of Congress. The sheer speed of t’s (and the republicans) attempts to sabotage the country – and for that matter, the world – in every possible area has been breathtaking. Every day we’ve been bombarded by the next unbelievable appointment he has made for high offices, his next executive order, for example, to ban Muslims from entering the country, to turn back the clock on environmental protection, or to abolish the regulation of a financial industry that single-handedly caused the international economic crisis of 2007-9. I won’t bore you with listing everything, which would be an impossible task. You will have either followed it with your jaw hanging on your chin, or you will have turned off, watched sports or a movie, and let it all take its course. It may be true that you and I can do little to stop him.

HOWEVER, all those marches and all those protests against everything t is trying to change for the worse have had their effect on the Democrats, at the very least. They may have rediscovered their calling.

Although I haven’t expressed my opinions here for six months, my friends and family will all too willingly tell you that they think I’ve been obsessing about the political situation. Nor have I kept quiet on Facebook. Maybe because it was my first foray into voting in a US presidential election since 1972(!!), or maybe because of my inability to grasp that the American electorate could go so wrong in their choice, but I have not been able to normalize this presidency. Every day I start out by reading as much as possible online about the news from the US. Could it be that, just maybe, that overnight (we are 6 hours ahead) the Russia investigation blew up and t has been taken down?

So far, no luck. But the news leaking out from the investigations is encouraging. The special counselor Robert Mueller is extremely competent. And a very busy man. I’ve read that he is hiring prosecutors by the dozen. Looks like, where there is smoke… I live for the day when all will be revealed. And I tell myself, it’s not all that far off.

A slight comfort to my lagging intellect is that, time and time again over the last 6 months, analysts and commentators in quality media – think: MSNBC – Rachel Maddow and co. – have also expressed their own feelings of being overwhelmed by events. But they, being professionals, got on with the stories. They have demonstrated that the press is truly the fourth pillar of American democracy.The epithet of fake news has not kept them from their work.

The other three pillars – legislative, judicial and executive – have been duking it out. And the press has done its job and exposed their shortcomings. The executive’s (president’s) attempts to castrate the courts and control Congress are finally being fought off. Have Congressional Republicans (bought and paid for by big business) finally realized that t’s ship is foundering? Will the Democrats reform their party and push back against the republican gerrymandering that has caused them to win more seats than is their due? So many spaces to watch.